…Well, you didn't think I could let April Fools day go by without updating, did you? (spare one day…but who's counting?)

Anyway…I hope you all enjoyed April 1st, and got up to a little mischief. God knows I did!

Thankyou AGAIN to all you lovely reviewers/readers- ThelovelyladyLily, drigger, and Queen of Alexandria, to mention a couple. I wish I had time to name some more names, but I'm running late, so I'll save that for next time. I'll add a massive thankyou to everyone individually at the end of the story. And yes, the end is in sight!

Anyway, I'll be quiet now and let you read on...

The atmosphere in Dumbledore's office was tense. James, Remus, Sirius and Peter had been escorted there by Quinn and Filch, one on either side, as if they were criminals being taken away to be locked up. None of them had spoken until they arrived, and now as the four boys stood waiting for the Headmaster, they began to fear the worst.

James and Sirius had taken their capture particularly harshly. James had gone deathly quiet, and Sirius was pacing, fuelled with nervous energy.

Fawkes the Phoenix was watching them all curiously from his perch.

"Glad someone's relaxed!" said Sirius, pointing at the magnificent bird suddenly. "You wouldn't know what its like, would you? Thinking you knew someone, then having them abandon you when you need them most!"

Fawkes clucked softly.

"Yeah, that's right," said Sirius, continuing his pacing, back and forth. "Last time I ever trust a poltergeist- last time I ever talk to one either! In fact-"

"Sirius, will you stop that?" asked Remus. "You're making me dizzy,"

"We'll be alright," muttered James, more to himself than anyone else. "We just have to stay calm, keep our nerve. Don't panic,"

Peter was biting his lip and fidgeting.

"James, what will we do if we get expelled?" he said quietly. "What if Peeves told-"

"Ah! Don't you say his name!" said James so suddenly he caused the others to jump, startled (Sirius was so on edge that he gasped and clutched his heart in shock).

Peter blinked in slight confusion.

"Who's name? Peev-"

"No!" said James. "Don't! Traitorous little maggot! We're not to speak of him again! I want nothing to do with him,"

"I did warn you," offered Remus weakly. "He's bad news,"

"Bad news, that's for sure," said Sirius savagely, pacing with increased agitation. "Irritating little-"

"Ah. You're all here,"

Dumbledore had entered behind them. He was dressed in sweeping robes of sky blue, lined elegantly with silver trimming. His long white hair and beard almost seemed to shimmer as he observed the boys knowingly over his half-moon glasses.

"Uh, yes," croaked James. "Hello, S-Sir,"

Dumbledore calmly crossed to his desk and sat down.

"Let me draw you up some chairs- I would hardly have my guests stand whilst I sit. Very rude of me indeed!" he said, bringing out his wand and neatly conjuring four chairs on the opposite side of the desk for the boys. "Have a seat,"

Hesitantly, the Marauders looked to each other for reassurance, then lowered themselves into the chairs.

Dumbledore steepled his fingers and looked at the four boys carefully.

"Now-"

Sirius wasted no time in launching into a frenzied explanation.

"We didn't mean to barge into Professor Binn's classroom, really, we were just passing, well, and I thought I should stop by and get my essay back, so we went in, and we didn't know Filch was following us, o-or that he wanted to talk to us- as we didn't know what he wanted to talk to us about-"

Remus put his head in his hands as Sirius rambled on.

"Because we hadn't done anything wrong, you see, so he must have gotten us confused with someone else, so that's why he was chasing us, and we knew nothing about the Frisbees, and-"

"Toffee?" asked Dumbledore, politely.

"Huh?" asked Sirius, puzzled. "I mean- sorry?"

Dumbledore smiled vaguely, taking an old biscuit tin of sweets out from one of his draws and offering it to them.

"Would any of you like a toffee?" he repeated. "Honeydukes best, I can't go in there without buying some,"

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter- all to nervous to eat anything- shook their heads frantically.

"Oh, well," said Dumbledore, replacing the tin. "More for me, I daresay. I'm sorry, Sirius, I believe I interrupted you. Do continue,"

Sirius paused a moment, trying to get over the initial shock of being offered a toffee.

"Uh…" he started, feeling stupid. "No, I was…I was finished, anyway,"

"Ah," said Dumbledore, readjusting his glasses ever-so-slightly. "I hope you won't mind if I proceed, then,"

The Marauder's found the Headmaster's peaceful ambience to be more unnerving than if he had been angry with them. They felt even more uneasy, not knowing what would come next.

Peter shifted slightly. James gripped his chair.

"Though I can't say I can keep an eye on every student, and all corners of the school, all the time…" Dumbledore began. "I have noticed, over the past few days, that we seem to have had a few unusual, and unexplained occurrences,"

He surveyed them with his light blue eyes for a moment, then continued.

"I do not wish to jump to any conclusions," he said. "But I do have reason to believe that we could possibly have…a troublemaker, or two, in our midst,"

"Oh?" said James, in a would-be casual voice.

"Oh indeed," said Dumbledore, with a faint smile playing around the corners of his mouth. "A number of happenings have snagged my attention, yes. Over the past few days I have had several anonymous reports of such things as rampaging teacups, mysterious pink fog, and just recently a knight on the second floor giving passers-by a friendly bonk on the head with his mace,"

Peter winced and gingerly touched his head. James and Sirius looked as if they were concentrating as hard as they possibly could not to smile at the mention of their pranks. Remus on the other hand was dreadfully pale.

"I am sure, or at least I hope, that there is a reasonable explanation behind all of this," said the Headmaster lightly. "Though amusing it may seem, I would be happy if the guilty member, or members, were to come forth. This is, after all, a school- not a part of Zonko's testing facility. Jokes and prank-pulling, I'm afraid, will not be tolerated,"

The four boys sat quietly, their faces set. Dumbledore leaned forward ever so slightly, and his expression became a little more sombre.

"Is there anything- anything at all- that either of you four wish to tell me?"

No one spoke. Every second of silence that passed seemed like a lifetime- and for every second that they didn't speak, they could feel any remaining dregs of Dumbledore's belief that they were innocent slipping away.

Someone had to say something. Sirius glanced sideways at James hopefully. James opened his mouth to speak but didn't know what to say. Peter's jaw was trembling.

Then, looking rather sick, but determined- Remus stood up. All three Marauders looked straight to him- Dumbledore raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Professor," said Remus, ashen-faced. "As a school Prefect, I can safely say…that my friends and I…have had nothing to do with any of these recent occurrences,"

Sirius and James' eyes widened, and Peter almost choked. Dumbledore watched Remus reverently.

Remus glanced at his friends briefly, then continued.

"We were on our way to lessons this morning, when…when Peeves alerted me that he had seen someone throwing Fanged Frisbees at Madam Hooch and her class. My friends and I went to investigate, only to find the culprit had moved on. So, I had a look around. We came across the bewitched suit of armour nearby, and knew someone was up to something- as we'd all noticed the on-goings throughout the week. We thought perhaps we would go in to ask Professor Binns if he had seen anything unusual, as his classroom was nearby- but we saw he was busy teaching, so we thought we would just head back to our own class…"

Remus paused, obviously doing some very quick thinking. He swallowed nervously.

"We were just on our way," he continued. "When Mr Filch and Professor Quinn came across us, and misunderstood. They thought perhaps it was us who had been causing trouble, and so…sent us to see you. I-I hope that explains why we were out of class,"

Remus adopted the most serious face he could muster. "I can assure you, Professor…it wasn't us,"

The other three Marauders were watching Remus, completely dumbstruck.

"Very well," said Dumbledore softly, inclining his head. "I thank you for making that clear, Remus. Is there anything else you wish to add?"

Remus shook his head.

"No, Professor,"

Dumbledore nodded.

"All right," he said. "Though, if, at any point, you do find anything out, I would very much appreciate it if you could report what you know to me,"

"Oh we will," said Sirius, who had found his voice, catching a ride on Remus' confidence.

"We'll come straight to you if we get any clues," said James, as he and the other two stood up and pushed their chairs in. "You can rely on us, Professor,"

Dumbledore gave a whimsical smile.

"Off you go then," he said.

Fawkes ruffled his brilliant feathers and softly cooed goodbye as the Marauders turned and left the office at full speed. They leapt down the spiral staircase, and as soon as they were a safe distance away, exploded into adulation for Remus.

"That was BRILLIANT, Moony!" exclaimed James. "You sounded so professional! Had him completely fooled! He doesn't suspect a thing now!"

"Honestly Moony, if it wasn't going to look odd, I could kiss you right now!" howled Sirius. "I love you mate! You just saved our behinds!"

However, Remus was not looking so pleased. He was on the edge of breaking down, leaning up against the wall with his head in his hands.

"What have I done?" he groaned. "Why did I do that?"

"Coz you're our friend, Rem!" said James happily. "You stood up for us! And that's what being a Marauder is all about!"

"But how could I say that?" sobbed Remus, sliding down the wall to the floor. "I lied to the Headmaster! I told him a complete lie!"

"Its ok, Remus!" said Peter. "I would have believed you,"

"Yeah," said Sirius, sitting down next to him, trying to sound comforting. "You did great! Dumbledore bought it, and now he's not going to think its us. He's thinks we're trying to help, of all things!"

Remus shook his head, not looking up. "He's not that easily fooled," he croaked. "He'll see straight through what I said, and he'll be so angry that I made all that up just to get us out of trouble. I won't be a Prefect anymore, I won't even be a student anymore- he'll send me home…"

"Course he won't!" said James, putting an arm around him. "You sounded pretty convincing to me. Anyway, cheer up, mate! We've got loads to look forward to. April Fool's Day on Sunday!"

"Yeah, and it'll be full moon the Sunday after that, too!" added Peter, merrily.

Remus looked up at them in tragic astonishment.

"Is that supposed to cheer me up?" he sobbed.

It was well into the afternoon and Remus was still feeling terrible about his fibbing to Dumbledore, despite the fact that they had free time for exam study. The four Marauders were sitting down by the lake in the warm afternoon sun- half pretending to work, and half watching the Giant Squid sunning its tentacles just below the water's surface.

"Oh Moooony!" sang Sirius. "Come on, enough sulking! Time to brighten up! I personally don't know what you're so upset about- after all, you lied to us for almost 2 whole years, right?"

Remus didn't move, his head in his hands.

"Thankyou for reminding me," he mumbled. "Just what I needed,"

"Hey, by lying to him you got us out of a lot of trouble," James pointed out. "You stood up for us,"

"Dumbledore believed you," said Sirius. "You forget, you have an advantage when it comes to swaying opinions,"

Remus looked up, raising his eyebrows. Sirius pointed to the glimmering gold Prefect badge pinned to Remus' chest.

All Marauders looked to it (Peter; rather enviously, as though he wished he had one too.)

"Our saviour," whispered James.

"I don't want anyone to think I'm exploiting my power," said Remus evenly, folding his arms over it protectively. "Using my badge to get my friends out of trouble. If word gets around that I'm a biased Prefect, then I'll probably be the most hated person in the school,"

"What, on the same level as Snivellus?" scoffed James, half laughing.

"Probably lower than Sniv- I mean Severus," said Remus, frowning. "I don't want that,"

"Now you're just talking rubbish. Look, Rem- stop feeling guilty, start feeling Maraudery!"

"Prongs is right," declared Sirius. "I can't believe we've got a whole afternoon to ourselves and we're not even pranking. Look!" He held up his own Potions textbook in disbelieving disgust. "What's wrong with us!"

"What can we do?" asked Peter, excitedly. "Should I go and get the list? Hey! Maybe we could get some more Fanged Frisbees, like the ones Peev-"

"Shut up!" shouted Sirius, clasping a hand over Peter's mouth.

"Wormtail" snapped James. "Don't you dare say his name! We are NOT mentioning the traitor, remember?"

Peter stammered nervously, trying to fix his sentence. "L-like the ones pe- um…people, use. Heh," he finished, lamely.

James thought for a moment. "Well if we do anything, it'll have to wait til later: I've got Quidditch practise in about 10 minutes,"

"Come on then," said Sirius, stretching. "We'll tag along and watch- maybe a little Quidditch will cheer you up, Moony!"

Remus muttered something to the effect of "I highly doubt it," as the four boys stood up and started back towards the castle.

After James had changed into his Gryffindor Quidditch robes, and collected his broom, the Marauders trekked down to the Quidditch pitch.

"Who's our next match against, Prongsy?" asked Sirius as they walked. "Slytherin, isn't it?"

"Yeah, next week," replied James, pulling a bent twig out of his broomstick tail. "I can't wait. I'm just in the mood to give them a thrashing,"

They reached the top of a rocky hill, and the Quidditch pitch came into view.

"Hey look!" said Peter, pointing. "There's already some players there,"

James adjusted his glasses and squinted, trying to make out who the little figures were. A gasp rose in Sirius' throat.

"Hang on…Son of a-! Its those bloody Slytherins!" he cursed. "What are they doing there?"

"We booked the pitch, its our turn to practise!" cried James furiously, taking off down the hill. "They had it last week! What do they think they're doing?"

"James, they probably have a good reason!" said Remus, not liking James' tone as he raced down towards the pitch. "Don't do anything rash…please!"

The boys ran onto the pitch. The green-clad Slytherins were standing in the middle of the stadium. There were the beaters, Ian Bode and Claude Zabini; Keeper, Hamish Nettles; Gregory Gwynham, their Seeker; and the Chasers- two of which were known as the Bickleford sisters (who were by no means attractive- both had long, drab mousy hair and bushy eyebrows that surely seemed to connect at the bridges of their noses), and the third, their Captain Rick Vorgan, appropriately nicknamed Vulture, owing to the fact that he did indeed look like a big, scrawny bird: gangly and tall, with a long neck, wispy near-white hair, and a mean, undernourished look about his features- he looked as if someone only had to double cross him once and he would prey on them for the rest of their life.

"OI!" James shouted, slowing to a walk, the other Marauders close behind him. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm bloody sure that Gryffindor's got the pitch booked for today- so what are you lot doing here?"

The Slytherins turned to look. Vulture smirked.

"You are wrong, Potter," he stated. "We booked the pitch,"

"You liars," panted James, wiping a hand across his forehead. "We had our names down on the sheet a whole week ago! How the heck have you booked it?"

Vulture grinned widely, baring crooked teeth. "By means of scrubbing your names out and putting ours down instead,"

The Slytherins guffawed stupidly. Cold rage flowed over James, and he clenched his broom.

"Well, the rest of the Gryffindors will be here in a minute," he said coolly. "They'll have a few words to say to you,"

"Got news for you Potter," said Claude Zabini spitefully. "They've already been here. Vulture told 'em where to go!"

"Left straight away!" the uglier of the two Bickleford sisters chimed in. "Scared them right off!"

"Yeah, they were crying too!"

The Slytherins all laughed heartily- Vulture sounding rather vulture-like.

"They're only trying to wind you up, mate, don't listen!" Sirius murmured, as James started breathing heavily through his nostrils.

As the laughter died down, Vulture advanced. The others followed, until they were all bearing down on the Marauders dominantly. The majority of the Slytherins were rather brawny and tall, making James and his three friends seem very small and weak. Peter cowered behind Remus.

Vulture leaned close to James with a predatory glare.

"You and your little friends can nick off, Potter," he said softly. "So we can get on with our team meeting, and then practise for next week, when we'll give your team such a trouncing you'll be too embarrassed to ever show your face on the pitch again,"

Sirius angrily started towards him, but Remus grabbed his sleeve and held him back. James momentarily shut his hazel eyes. When he opened them again, he looked surprisingly content.

"All right!" he said jovially. "Nothing we can do. You're right, we're wrong, we apologise for interrupting,"

Vulture's expression teetered between victory and confusion. James grinned around.

"Right," he said, decidedly clapping his hands. "Come on, let's go. Leave these boys to practise,"

Smiling, James turned his back on Vulture and the Slytherins and walked away. The remaining Marauders paused, before following him, leaving the Slytherins somewhat unsatisfied that they hadn't reduced James to a quivering heap with their trademark threats.

"What are you doing?" hissed Sirius, running to keep up with James as he strolled away across the grass. "You could have taken him! We all could have!"

"Uh, I don't think so, Sirius," Remus countered instantly. "We don't need anymore enemies. Plus, I'd like to still have the use of my limbs by the end of the day,"

"Come on, they're all talk!" said Sirius urgently. "Lets go back, show them what we're made of! What do you reckon?"

James showed no sign of turning back.

"Oh don't worry," he said airily. "I've far from finished with them,"

The other three stopped. James did too, realising they were no longer behind him. He turned to them.

"Did none of you notice," he said, "that they didn't have their brooms with them?"

Sirius, Remus and Peter looked puzzled.

"So?" asked Sirius. "They've probably left them in the…ohh,"

Realisation dawned on Sirius, and devious grins concurrently spread over his and James' faces.

"Yes," said James gleefully, pointing to the Slytherin team's change rooms. "My guess is that their brooms are sitting unattended in there. Which means…"

"They've left themselves wide open," observed Sirius. "Shouldn't have doubted you for a second, Prongs,"

"Wait," said Remus warily, leaving Peter as the only one who hadn't picked up yet. "You're going to tamper with their broomsticks, aren't you?"

James gave an evil chuckle, and he and Sirius set off again across the grass towards the change rooms. Remus cringed with dread.

"No…oh no, no, no, you're not…"

"Oh yes we are," said James highly. "If we can't practise, then neither can they. We wouldn't want them to have an unfair advantage, would we?"

"You're right James!" said Peter. "Its not fair! They shouldn't have bossed you around like that!"

They reached the edge of the grass, and checked behind them. The Slytherins were still in the middle of the pitch, but weren't watching. They seemed to be discussing tactics, and were far too absorbed in their little meeting to notice James, Sirius, Remus and Peter creeping into their change rooms.

There were Slytherin banners and signs draped around the walls, and the benches were strewn with the team's belongings. The boys peered around. Sure enough, an assortment of brooms- seven, to be exact- stood propped up against a wall next to a blackboard with little moving chalk diagrams drawn on it.

"Now, what did I tell you?" said James, approaching the brooms. "The stupid, gullible idiots…"

"What are you going to do?" asked Peter.

"Something to make them look like stupid, gullible idiots," replied James. "Any of you any good with broom backfiring charms?"

Sirius cracked his knuckles, grinning.

"Why, funny you should say that Prongsy. That's my area of expertise,"

He drew his wand with finesse and pointed it at the twiggy stack of brooms.

Remus turned away.

"I'm not witnessing this," he said defiantly.

"I am!" said Peter, watching keenly. "I want to learn how to do it!"

"Don't try it, Wormtail," warned James. "With your luck, you'll accidentally curse yourself, and you'll backfire…like one of Hagrid's blast-ended skrewts," He paused, looking mildly amused. "What a revolting thought,"

Sirius pushed his hair out of his eyes, concentrating hard. He took a deep breath and uttered the charm: the brooms shivered collectively, and emitted a short burst of white sparks.

"There!" said Sirius proudly. "Done it! That should give them at least eight or nine good explosions each, possibly more. Wonder which one is Vulture's? I could try tripling the curse for that one, if we knew,"

The sound of approaching voices drifted in from outside.

"Someone's coming!" said Remus, horrified. "I think its them! How are we supposed to get out of here?"

James darted over to a large Slytherin tapestry hanging on the back wall.

"If this is like the Gryffindor change rooms…" he muttered. "Then there should be a way out…ah, here! Quickly, this way!"

Sirius, Peter and Remus shot over and followed James out through the tapestry, down a little corridor, which lead them outside to the back of the stands. They peered around the corner just in time to see the Slytherins march into the room they themselves had just left, and then troop out again, brooms in hand.

Sirius snorted and doubled over, already laughing. Peter gave a squeak of anticipation.

"Oh, this will be good," said James. "Mount your brooms, boys,"

The first to clamber onto their broomsticks were Zabini and Bode, the Beaters. Clutching their clubs, they kicked off from the ground, not expecting anything. The result was alarming.

With two loud gunfire-like bangs that echoed around the pitch, Zabini and Bode's brooms exploded at the tails, propelling them both violently off the ground. With a scream, Bode was sent rocketing across the pitch at such a speed that he slipped and was left dangling underneath- Zabini's broom had shot vertically up into the air with him clinging on for dear life- he reached such a height that he seemed like merely a speck to those on the ground. Confused, Keeper Hamish Nettles mounted his own broom, only to be exploded forth into the ugly Bickleford sisters, bowling them off their feet, and triggering their own brooms to launch into the air with thunderous bangs, with each of them hanging on with one hand as they soared into the air. Vulture was too cocky to believe that anything was wrong with his broom, and so he climbed onto his own, only to be blasted with incredibly force diagonally into the air, shooting into one of the stands with a force that rightfully should have broken his broom. He was nearly thrown off, and had just managed to steady himself in mid air, when his broom exploded again, and he was shot upwards, missing Zabini by centimetres.

It was not long before all players were in the air, shooting off in different directions with loud explosions and screams of confusion. Pieces of burnt twigs were drifting down over the pitch as the broomsticks continued to rocket around the stadium, ridden by their terrified owners.

"Ahh…bliss," said James, completely satisfied with what he was watching. "Great work, Padfoot. Great work,"

"There's nothing I like more than a bit of Slytherin torture in the afternoon," howled Sirius, trying to wipe his eyes. "Oh quick, look! Collision!"

A Bickleford sister and Gregory Gwynham crashed into each other, mid-field. The pair of them tumbled to the ground, just as Hamish Nettles' broom shot through one of the hoops, almost knocking him off, and sending him into a spiralling nosedive to the sand below (which was accelerated when his broom exploded again).

"Marauders-10, Slytherins- Nil!" commented James. "Excellent form, lads!"

However, the most enjoyable backfire the boys were to witness came next- Vulture was clinging to his unruly broom high above the grounds- suddenly, it blasted violently not once, not twice, but three times diagonally down to the pitch with the speed of a bullet- the last explosion lodged the tip of the broomstick into the ground and Vulture was thrown off- arms flailing, he plummeted face first into a particularly muddy area of grass.

Back behind the change room, James, Sirius and Peter collapsed to the ground in fits of laughter.

"Did you hear?" Sirius shrieked, clutching his sides. "He screamed like a little girl!"

"Oh this is golden!" choked James. "I'm going to tell my grand-children this one! Could it possibly be any better?"

"You know…it probably could,"

The three boys looked up in shock to see Remus smiling. He pointed over behind the nearby Hufflepuff stand.

"There are a whole cage full of bludgers over there," he said lightly. "If you did want to, er, turn up the heat a little…of course, not that I'd encourage that…or anything,"

This revelation was the icing on the cake for the Marauders. James and Sirius looked almost like they were going to cry with delight.

"Lead the way, Rem!" said Sirius.

With the bangs of the backfiring brooms still echoing across the Quidditch pitch, the four boys raced over to the Hufflepuff stand. Remus was right- they found themselves face to face with a large cage of spare practise bludgers, all rattling around, eager to get out.

James grabbed the padlock and cast a swift "Alohomora!". It clicked open, and he, Sirius, Remus and Peter took a hold of the lid.

"When I say go, push it open, then hit the ground- alright?" instructed James. "Ready- and- GO!"

The four boys heaved open the heavy cage lid and then ducked out of the way. They felt the bludgers zooming out and hurtling towards the pitch- the boys only dared look up when the felt the last of many bludgers whoosh past their heads.

The Quidditch pitch was now in absolute bedlam. While the Slytherins were still being randomly propelled in all directions from their broom explosions, the feature that made the scene complete was the storm of bludgers now careering after the team members.

How many they had released, the Marauders didn't know, but it was certainly a lot. Some were newer ones, and were particularly fast, zipping around the pitch while others were slower and a bit unsteady- yet nonetheless just as aggressive. Zabini and Bode, the Beaters, were trying to swing at them with their clubs, though it seemed to be proving difficult as they still had no control over their backfiring broomsticks. Vulture, who was still on the ground, had to run on foot as about four berserk bludgers took an interest in him and started racing after him. Gwynham was knocked forwards off his broom as one bludger got him square in the back, and the Bickleford Chasers were screaming hysterically, trying to land, but having no luck with their out-of-control broomsticks.

"Hey, who's that?" Sirius managed to ask through his laughter, looking across the pitch.

The Gryffindor team had appeared, and were watching the madness in utter shock. They had brought tiny Professor Flitwick with them (obviously to sort out the business with the Slytherins and the pitch booking)- unfortunately, several of the bludgers saw them as new victims. Within no time at all, Flitwick and the Gryffindors were caught up in the chaos too, dancing out of the way of bludgers- poor Flitwick had barely drawn his wand when a bludger whipped past and knocked it from his hand.

"Oh dear," said Remus, watching in despair. "This has gone a bit far…"

"Lets bail," grinned James. "I think we've well and truly got them back. Flitwick will sort it all out," (as he said this, Flitwick gave a terrified cry and started running back to the castle).

"All hail Remus' inner miscreant!" cried Sirius. "You've done us proud, mate, thinking of the bludgers! I knew you'd come through!"

"Well…those Slytherins deserved it," said Remus fairly, smiling. "Sometimes it does pay to actively seek revenge…rather than just sit back and accept defeat,"

"What do you mean, 'sometimes'?" smirked Sirius. "I say all the time!"

"Yeah!" said Peter proudly. "We're the Marauders, right Sirius? We take any excuse to cause some trouble! Just like Peev-"

Peter was instantly dealt a vigorous thwack across the back of his head by James.

"I thought I told you to NOT to say his NAME, you dolt, Wormtail!"